Emily Costello
Emily Costello is a character in the Ghostwriter book Alien Alert. She and her cousin Sam live in the year 1938. After hearing about a Martian invasion on the radio, Ghostwriter contacts them, wanting to help. Summary Emily calls out to Sam after arriving at his house with her mother, carrying an overnight bag. She apologizes for being late, and says that the reason is that her parents took so long to get ready for a dinner dance in New York City. Sam tells them that his mother was going to bring over Emily’s asthma medicine. His aunt appreciates that, since she had forgotten it. After she leaves, Emily tells Sam that it is his night to choose which radio program to listen to. He picks Mercury Theatre, his favorite. Emily turns on the radio, first listening to her own favorite station, The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show. Sam tells her that they had already missed the beginning of the other program. Emily turns the dial to that station. In a news bulletin, they are very surprised to hear first about strange occurrences on the planet of Mars. Emily says that Sam is the space expert, and asks him for an explanation. However, Sam is as confused as she is. He asks Emily to turn up the volume of the radio, after which they hear about a meteorite that has landed in their hometown. Sam explains to Emily what a meteorite is. The announcer states that it actually looks like a cylinder, and then that something is crawling out of it. Emily is quite surprised that her cousin wants to write about the news report. She becomes quite frightened as the radio announcer continues his report about multiple monsters coming out of the cylinder, and wonders aloud what they are going to do. After the announcer is attacked by one of the monsters, Emily shouts to her cousin to turn of the radio since she does not want to listen to it anymore. Sam attempts to reassure her that they would were fine. Emily starts to wheeze a little bit as the news report continues. Sam wonders if anyone they knew had died, but she sharply tells him to not think like that. Emily tries calling Sam’s mother, but cannot reach her. She hears Sam tell her to try again. A bit later, he tells her to come into the room. Emily comes and sees a message that Ghostwriter had sent Sam, and wonders if it is a joke. She asks Ghostwriter if he is really a ghost. He responds that he is, and that there was nothing to be afraid of since he is her friend. Emily screams and tosses the pen she had used back to Sam, and asks him to try writing to Ghostwriter. Sam tells about the Martian invasion, and Ghostwriter tells him that maybe the team can help. Suddenly, as Sam starts to write a letter, Emily starts having an asthma attack. Sam tries to call his mother again, but still cannot reach her. His cousin tells him that she needs help soon, and he tries to reassure her that things would be fine. After Sam realizes that he cannot get off of the porch, Emily points to his journal on the sofa, where Ghostwriter has come back. He gives Sam two clues to where there is medicine to help Emily. After seeing a bottle of asthma medicine in the medicine chest, Sam comes back, where Emily is frightened, crying and saying that the Martians are all over the country. Sam tries to get the bottle, but accidently breaks it. Later, there are yellow lights outside the house. Emily and Sam are quite scared of them. Ghostwriter sends them a message from the team, which states that the Martian invasion is only a radio broadcast. The door to the house opens, which is only Frank Connor, the chemist that works at Sam’s family store. The yellow lights had come from the flashlight he was holding. Frank gives Emily some of the asthma medicine that he had brought with him. He tells them about the many people that had told about the Martian invasion, and that he had trouble getting to Sam’s house due to the traffic. Emily thanks Frank for helping her. Category:Book Characters